Till the Stars Come Down review – your invitation to the wedding of the year
Beth Steel’s new drama is dazzlingly performed and full of pain, joy and laughter in a deft production by Bijan Sheibani
May 2022
In capturing the changing face of Britain, playwrights can explain us to ourselves
Michael Billington
Beth Steel’s The House of Shades unites national politics and private lives through the fortunes of a working-class family from 1965 to 2019
The week in theatre: The House of Shades; My Fair Lady; The Breach
Anne-Marie Duff’s aspiring singer transfixes in a didactic family saga; My Fair Lady feels strangely vacant. Plus, a stifling tale of dysfunctional siblings
The House of Shades review – Anne-Marie Duff gives a toxic tour de force
Beth Steel’s ambitious new play follows the Webster family over decades, with Duff as a thwarted singer
April 2022
‘You don’t have to be invited – you do it’: Beth Steel on her working-class family epic
The playwright reflects on the importance of difficult conversations, putting female characters centre-stage and reading a Greek tragedy a day to write The House of Shades
April 2020
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Lockdown culture
Watch the miners' strike drama Wonderland by Beth Steel – video
Watch Hampstead Theatre's production of the acclaimed drama Wonderland at home
February 2018
Wonderland/Chicken Soup review – mining dramas dig deep in Nottingham and Sheffield
Beth Steel gives a clear-eyed account of the 1984 strike while Ray Castleton and Kieran Knowles focus on its legacy for women
September 2016
Labyrinth review – exhilarating financial drama is best since Enron
Beth Steel’s play about the 1980s Latin American debt crisis is staged with a hurtling energy that propels us through the intricacies of international banking
July 2014
Wonderland review – Scargill, strikes, solidarity and scars
Beth Steel's re-creation of the 1984 strikes exposes the divisions between miners and the destruction of a defiant community, writes Michael Billington
June 2014
Beth Steel's Wonderland: coalminer's daughter hits a rich seam in strike play
A sprawling new drama at Hampstead theatre explores how the 1980s industrial dispute changed Britain, writes Lyn Gardner
